Wellness Tips from edHEALTH's Walking Challenge-winning school: Two Years in a Row!

Last year, Saint Joseph's College of Maine won the annual edHEALTH walking challenge for the second year. Since they managed to capture the title two years running, we thought it was worth re-sharing a few tips from Saint Joseph's own Jenna Chase, the school’s associate director of health and wellness programming. Jenna clearly has a passion for promoting good health and well-being and engages faculty and staff through a variety of activities. While your school might not be able to offer all that Saint Joseph’s does, plenty of her ideas can apply to all types of institutions.

Promoting school-wide challenges

For most of Saint Joseph's wellness initiatives, like edHEALTH's walking challenge, we mainly use our bulletin board and our school's employee website. For the walking challenge, we used the flyer edHEALTH provided. Since we have an on-site health and wellness center, we also promoted it there.

Word of mouth, and not just from me, creates excitement for our competitive challenges. Conversation among faculty and staff is one of our most effective forms of communication.

Another way we promote healthy habits is through online weekly tips at different times of the year. I personally like to mix it up to keep our topics fresh and a bit of a surprise, whether it's Monday Motivation, Wednesday Wisdom, or Fit Tip Friday. There are so many ways to offer helpful tidbits of information. 

Other wellness offerings and ideas

Our goal is to offer something related to health and wellness regularly. These programs don’t have to be huge. Small promotions work well.

We meet the faculty and staff where they are by regularly pulling our "wellness wagon" all over campus. A couple of examples of what we have previously shared using the wagon include:

• Distributing sunscreen (donated to the school) to promote UVF protection
• Handing out healthy snacks

We're simultaneously promoting upcoming events, like the walking challenge, through our interaction with colleagues. The goal is to spread the word and generate buzz.

At our Health and Wellness Center, we often host a hydration station with fruit-infused water available throughout the day. The staff also hosts various classes and promotes the many resources available through our health plan offerings. Their team is also fantastic in supporting us with on-site events.

We're also fortunate that Saint Joseph's has an extensive nursing program, enabling us to host healthy habits days so faculty and staff can better understand their cholesterol, blood pressure, and sugar levels. Our colleagues really do support the nursing students, who are supervised, of course, in this way. 

Favorite campus activity

Chair massages are a clear-cut winner. We can only offer so many spots in one day, and when we post their availability, they go fast. People appreciate and look forward to these events.

Maintaining program momentum

While it’s important to have a strong kick-off to a program, keeping the momentum with ongoing communications is as valuable. A short and straightforward message might motivate someone who’s had a bad week to get back on track or start moving a little more. We can accomplish so much while making it fun for participants.

Good luck to Saint Joseph’s College of Maine and all our edHEALTH schools when the walking challenge starts on June 2! 

Spreading the Word about Sun Safety

As we close out the month of May, many of us look forward to warmer weather and sunny skies. While Vitamin D has many benefits, direct sunlight can be dangerous. So, it's best to protect ourselves. We link to three flyers from trusted resources you may wish to share on your campus or post on any employee sites.

• How to select sunscreen (American Academy of Dermatology)
• Preventing skin cancer (American Cancer Society)
• Protection against eye damage (EPA)

Updates at the National Level

With so much happening at the federal level these days, we will offer updates from time to time that we receive. The following briefs come from the National Alliance of Healthcare Purchaser Coalitions. We can share their content with you and are encouraged to do so, as edHEALTH is a member.

• What April's Executive Order on Drug Pricing Means for Employers
• May Health Policy Updates

In Memoriam:

Phil DiChiara, One of edHEALTH's Founders

Earlier this month, we were deeply saddened to learn of the passing of our former colleague, Phillip DiChiara. Phil accomplished so much in both his professional and personal life. His role as the inaugural managing director of The Boston Consortium for Higher Education (TBC) actually began his new career in higher education after having great success in healthcare administration.

We honor and thank Phil, especially, for two successful and lasting initiatives that he created at TBC through collaboration with local college and university leaders and funding from the Davis Educational Foundation.

1) Known as the Healthy You wellness and disease management program, originating at several TBC member institutions, this health management initiative was one of the first to effectively use data to educate and support wellness and disease management. His work on this program, alongside HR leaders from the TBC schools, began in early 2007. A few years later, it received a CUPA-HR Eastern Region award and expanded to non-TBC schools. Healthy You became a premier model for similar programs.

2) In 2009, Phil was a driving force, one of the original four people, to research and spearhead the work needed to build the foundation of what became edHEALTH. He led the grant proposal process, provided critical TBC financial support during the development process, co-led efforts to recruit edHEALTH's first member-owners, and helped to launch the program in 2013. Phil remained an edHEALTH champion throughout his tenure at TBC.

Both achievements recognize Phil's early insights into the importance of health data and wellness, and how costly healthcare would be to educational institutions. Phil was more than just a brilliant mind; he was a close friend to many of us. Our hearts are with Phil's family and friends. You can read more about Phil's lifelong accomplishments and legacy.